Caption: To get to Haarp, drive 200 miles northeast of Anchorage. Then take the Tok Cutoff for 11.3 miles, and turn onto an unmarked road. You'll be met by this sign, at the facility's front gates. Noah Shachtman

Caption: Haarp's collection of instruments often look like relics from an alien boneyard. It only makes the place feel more mysterious. João Canziani

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Caption: Haarp's scientists view the state of the ionosphere with this "optical dome." João Canziani

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Caption: Nick Begich has been obsessed with uncovering mysteries ever since his congressman father disappeared in 1972. With Haarp, he hit the conspiracy jackpot -- a far North answer to Area 51. João Canziani

Gallery: Inside Alaska’s Answer to Area 51

To get to Haarp, drive 200 miles northeast of Anchorage. Then take the Tok Cutoff for 11.3 miles, and turn onto an unmarked road. You'll be met by this sign, at the facility's front gates. Noah Shachtman

200 miles northeast of Anchorage, there’s a massive military facility tucked deep in the black pine. What goes on at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (Haarp) depends on who you ask. Self-directed “researchers” like Nick Begich say the collection of transmitters and receivers is conducting secret tests of monstrous weapons for the Defense Department: mind control, weather manipulation, long-distance spying. The military scientists in charge of this military installation insist that Haarp has absolutely no direct military applications whatsoever. It “is and always was and was planned to be a research facility,” says Dr. Paul Kossey, the Air Force’s program manager. Haarp’s antennas are being used to study the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer of Earth’s atmosphere, by pumping it full of energy. That’s why Haarp’s scientists are creating artificial Northern Lights, beaming radio waves into the crevasses of nearby Mt. Wrangell, and bouncing signals off of the Moon. Naturally.

Haarp’s main antenna array consists of 180 silver poles rising from the ground, each a foot thick, 72 feet tall, and spaced precisely 80 feet apart. João CanzianiThe Northern Lights are normally triggered by solar winds. But with Haarp, aurora can now be man-made, too. Department of Defense“Stare up and listen to the wind in the guide wires,” says one unidentified Haarp scientist. “It’s as close to a religious experience as you’re ever going to get.” João CanzianiHaarp is an unclassified facility. But the flow of information there is tightly controlled. João CanzianiFive 3,600-horsepower diesel-electric generators produce the energy that Haarp channels into the heavens. João CanzianiAt Haarp’s digital control center, scientist pulse, shape and direct blasts of massively powerful high-frequency radio waves. João CanzianiHaarp’s collection of instruments often look like relics from an alien boneyard. It only makes the place feel more mysterious. João CanzianiHaarp’s scientists view the state of the ionosphere with this “optical dome.” João CanzianiNick Begich has been obsessed with uncovering mysteries ever since his congressman father disappeared in 1972. With Haarp, he hit the conspiracy jackpot — a far North answer to Area 51. João CanzianiGo Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.